Case Study: Insurance Broker Technology moves to reliable telephony with Avaya IP Office
The Customer:
Insurance Broker Technology (IBT) was formed in April 2000 and became the first software company in New Zealand to offer a fully integrated webenabled business solution for Insurance Broker intermediaries. IBT services insurance broker clients from Whangarei to Invercargill including Rothbury, OFS and Commercial and General. IBT grew rapidly this year when it changed its operating structure to bring business services in-house – the result – a dramatic increase in staffing levels and the necessity to review its IT infrastructure requirements.
The Challenges:
According to Stuart Penning, Chief Information Officer at IBT, the expansion of the company meant more people relied on their services and the company quickly recognized that a consistent telecommunications system was vital to ensuring excellent customer service. "A reliable telecommunications system is mission critical to our business," Mr Penning said. "We had been using an IP phone system from another vendor which seemed to phone system from another vendor which seemed to give us nothing but trouble – there were network problems with the system and it would constantly drop or misdirect calls which meant we were losing vital customers. "We needed a simple solution that was reliable, could manage our current size, but also continue to work regardless of how large we became. We also wanted a product from a reputable vendor that was well represented in New Zealand and one we could rely on if we needed extra service and support."
The Solution:
It was through the recommendation of one of its key clients, Rothbury that IBT first learned about the Avaya IP Office solution. Mr Penning says that staff at Rothbury remarked positively on the Avaya IP Office functionality and advised IBT to consider the Avaya solution as an alternative. So Mr Penning contacted an Avaya BusinessPartner to find out more about the product. "Peter Naylor from Telecom Business Solutions quickly helped us define our telecommunications goals and understood exactly what we hoped to do with the system in the future," Mr Penning said.
"Our goals included implementing a system that had the capacity to effectively manage our existing needs and one that could provide scalability for the future," said Mr Penning. "We also needed flexibility and functionality to suit all our telephony, call centre and data infrastructure requirements." Mr Naylor said, "The CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) feature allowed IBT to immediately take advantage of Microsoft Outlook for screen popping and dialling purposes. It has also enabled the company to manage and administer the system as they have grown, saving them time and money." Avaya IP Office has provided IBT with the following features:
• Ability to control the phone system via the PC
• Automated attendant and helpdesk
• Ability to "click" and dial from Microsoft Outlook
• "Screen pop" incoming calls through Microsoft Outlook
• Ability to "Screen pop" from IBT’s Broker Application.
• Conference calling
• End user administration of phone system
• Computer telephony integration
The Benefits:
"The major benefits of Avaya IP Office are its functionality and scalabilty. At present we are only using about 20 per cent of Avaya IP Office’s full functionality, and whilst we may not use the remaining 80 per cent immediately, it is comforting to know the extras are there if we need them! "I am happy to report the system has already significantly improved our organizational efficiency from the way we run our help desk right through to the software development operation. Its scalability also allows plenty of room for future growth," said Mr Penning. Mr Naylor added, "The great thing about Avaya IP Office is its expandable functionality which allows you to operate on traditional telephony structures or to take advantage of emerging IP applications in the future." "With Avaya IP Office, staff at IBT are running the Phone Manager application on their desktop PCs so when calls come in, customer details are automatically "screen popped" for quick and efficient identification of customer records and history can quickly and easily be identified and monitored. The result of this tool is seen in IBT’s ability to offer their customers consistent high levels of customer service," he added. "We couldn’t be happier with the knowledge, service and support provided by Telecom Business Directions – they very quickly identified our current and future requirements and in Avaya IP Office, have recommended a solution that is proving to be invaluable to the way we do business. We also feel confident that the product we have purchased has come from a reputable world class IT vendor –Avaya – and is well represented and supported in New Zealand with Agile."
